 So I don't think that's a good way to end up with it. But it's an international challenge. It's not a great one. It's a whole different level. And then you can do this. It's not a good one. It's not a good one. It's not a good one. It's not a good one. That's same. OK. You're going to end up with this. It's because it's a non-native path. And it's because all of you make this. It's not a good one. It's a non-native path. So testing, testing, testing, testing, testing, testing, testing. I don't know if, yes, this mic works. Hey everyone. We're starting the NPA meeting now. I'm Roxanne. I'm on the steering committee. Other steering committee members are Charlie, who's manning the video camera. Chris is maybe getting dinner and Barbara is on screen here. And I think that's we have other members that can make it, but that's who's here tonight. So we're starting with announcements. So I have the agenda on my phone. That's why I'm looking at my phone. Yeah. So if you ever want to present at an NPA meeting, you can go to our website and or the city and or the city's website. And there's a form you can fill out to request time. The next meeting is Thursday, October 13th. We're going to start with the NPA meeting. And on YouTube or CCTVs website. And so first. More new announcement. Is that community grant applications are now open. So that's a yearly thing we do NPAs have money to. Give to individuals or organizations that want to do something for them. And then we have a list of whole timeline for that. All the info is on the website. And let's see. Yeah. So we have a total of 5,000 to give out for the 2022, 2023 fiscal year. And. Limits of $750 per. A total of 5,000. So the main point there was just, there are community grants. We have money. If you think of a fun project for the community, let us know about it and maybe we can help fund it. And. There is, we have a survey out on our website. And we're going to send it to other people, whether they know what an NPA is or not. It's a way to find out what people are looking for from the NPA. And that will help us figure out how to plan meetings, how to plan things beyond meetings. And how to better serve the community. And. Another announcement, we are, we could use more steering committee members. And if I can do it, you can do it. So. So. So. Especially from word two, that is underrepresented on our steering committee. It doesn't take too much of, it's not too much of a commitment. It's attending meetings. If you can't make it, it's okay. It happens. And then we have steering committee meetings also once a month. Sorry if I haven't been holding this close enough. And it's a good group. And the last announcement. So next we'll go into the public forum. And that last 10 minutes. Or until six 50 anyways, everyone gets two minutes to speak. I know there's a couple of people we're expecting to speak tonight. But anyone is. Welcome to let us know. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. I have one. I have one and we'll pass it off to you. And make sure to identify yourself by name and ward. When you. Talk. And just so you know, the whole agenda. Sorry, we don't have them printed out today. But after public forum, we will. Spend some minutes. Remembering Tony Reddington who passed recently. He was also a member of the steering committee. He was known for. An appreciation of roundabouts and safe bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. So we'll have some. Time to talk about him. He was also a member of our steering committee. After that, the bulk of this meeting, the next hour after that will be about the high school. About the design and the funding of it. So we've got. Different people related to that here tonight. And so. Save any high school related. Questions discussion for that instead of public form. If you can. And at the end, we'll have our city counselors and state reps. And such speak. And we should wrap up at eight 30. So now we can start. Public forum. Who would like to speak. Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here. My name is Milo Grant. I live in Ward three. I've lived mostly in wards two and three for my. Almost 40 years in Burlington. It's, it's getting there. And I currently serve on the police commission where. Some of you might have heard my name. I just want to check in more because a lot of the things that are happening. In Burlington are happening in our community's ward two and three. We've been feeling the brunt of it for quite some time. And I feel like we've been the canaries in the coal mine for the city of Burlington where things have started here. And our wards and kind of spread out. Talking about. The increase in crimes of opportunity, which wasn't taken seriously until recently. The city is now mailing out flyers creating an online site. Giving people tips on how to protect their property. They are also encouraging people to register their bicycles at a registration site that they have created. Keep in mind a lot of people have already been using bike index. UVM, because after the first week, they had a series of bikes that were stolen. They sent out an email to UVM students saying you need to use bike index. So the word that I've given to the mayor and to be PD is please use both use the city's registration use bike index, anything that you own that has a serial number. You should register with the city have current pictures of everything. Please don't think this can't happen to you. I've seen roughly five incidents where people are just trying doors. They're just trying doors. They're not out to, you know, do serious damage with people leaving keys. People leave duplicates of keys in their cars. People leave their cars running. So the issue with the cars is getting really out of control, but it's, it's. We don't want to victim blame, but unfortunately there are basic steps that we all need to do. In order to keep ourselves and our stuff safe. I encourage everyone please to watch the. Meetings for the police commission. You can watch them live. You can watch them later on YouTube. You don't have to watch them all at once. You can watch them a little bit at a time. It's really important to see the conversations that we are having. We also periodically have guests. We've been trying to add an educational component to the meetings and after the early report was reviewed and detailed recently, we're going to get, be getting back to that. The final thing is, and I know people are going to hate me for bringing this up, but another discussion we need to have with the city, with the department and with the superintendent in the high school is a parent who has a son in BHS approached me yesterday and told me that another student pulled a gun on his child. There apparently was semantics with the school as to where it actually happened as we all know the high schools in the Macy's building. So what constitutes school property because it wasn't actually inside the school was outside the school. So is that on the way to school on the way from school, things like that. Parent brought up the need for possibly a medical detector. Well, the answer he got back for that, he said, was how is that going to look. So we have to start thinking about this because if this happened to one child guarantee you it's happening to other child, children. So this is something that needs to be talked about out loud in terms of exactly what is being done to get through to some of these kids. What have you tried before exactly what have you tried before. And if it's failed, what new thing are you trying and are you including their peers. And thank you. I know I went a little bit over my time. My email for a city commission is m e grant at Burlington v T. Dot gov. My personal email is Milo granted gmail.com M E L O G R A N T. Please feel the reach out if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you. Is there anyone online who is has raised their hand. Anyone here. Oh, sorry with someone online. With someone online. Okay. I'm Trish Denton. I live in Ward three. I am your neighbor, but I'm also the director of in tandem arts, which is a community based arts organization based in the south end. And I wanted to announce a couple of opportunities that are coming up with in tandem. We use the performing arts and storytelling to shift cultural narratives. And this is a really important time to be doing that work with youth. And fortunately in tandem has received an expanding access grant from Vermont after school to establish a new after school program. And so we're working with schools all over Burlington and community based organizations. In partnership with the media factory to do. A new program for teens ages 14 to 19. To create an original performance that is a platform for teen voice. And so that is going to be happening. Starting September 20th. And we'll premiere something December 2nd in the third. And so I just want to put that out there if there are any teens in your life who are looking for a platform for expression, looking for a place to have creative community. Our space is available to them. Also, we have a full lineup of workshops and events that are dedicated to holding that space for adults and newcomers to the arts. People who have always taken an interest in performing have wanted to express themselves in that way, but didn't necessarily. Have the opportunity to be a part of lessons or, you know, fancy schooling and those things. It's just a drop in space to get together and do a circle sing or share some stories. And so I just wanted to put that out there as your neighbor and also as a community based artists that I would love to spend some time with you in that space this fall. Thank you. And I'm going to hand it to you next. Hello. My name is AJ Rossman. And I have a business in Ward three used to be used to live there quite a while. And now I'm Ward seven. I am representing IOT conduit, which is a community based citizen science initiative that's been funded by UVM vice president for research and came in rise. We are going to be applying for a national renewable energy lab community planning grant. We will be recycling a proposal that we had for a power connector where we had, you know, we had great connections and letters of recommendation. Vermont community loan fund or I mean, sustainable jobs fund rather. They're dealt the climb accelerator, green mount power, the two organizations that we were missing was anybody from the city of Burlington and Burlington electric. So this time around we would love to get more participation from the city for a community planning grant. To support the next generation of energy entrepreneurs. It's called an epic prize to so anybody who's more interested in that or can help build relationships with the city to see what this kind of innovation might be able to do for our goals would be great. Anyone else looking to speak in person or we've got a zoom person. Hi, I'm wondering if you all can hear me. I actually am a representative of representative from Burlington city art. And we wanted to bring everyone in Ward two and three up to the next slide. So I would like to take a moment to speak with you on the exciting sculpture that will be being installed in Dewey Park. This spring. In the fall of 2021, the racial equity inclusion and belonging department. Put forth as one of their initial goals was to create. A point of community pride. A destination for people to come and celebrate and gather and appreciate their community together. And they coordinated with us at Burlington city art. To. Put forth a national search for artists. Both. To develop proposals from across the country, both Burlingtonian artists, Vermont artists and. Ultimately, five finalists were selected to be paid $1,000 to develop proposals and. Humanity Memorial. Was selected. And commissioned to complete the project. Earlier this spring. They were and the system has. Progress far enough that they have provided us with a design document that we were able to update. You all and the community with. That sort of details the project in a better light. So. In April and March of this coming year, there will be a 20 foot tall metal sculpture. That represents to stand. For Cooper. In an intertwined. Orientation. That will act. As a sort of focal point for. Ideas of belonging and embrace. And we will be posting sort of a zoning. Permit out to get public feedback. And would love to hear. If anyone has any questions or comments about. Peace and the process. And we'll be doing more public meetings in the area. Would love to do more in depth. For question and answer period. At a forthcoming MPA meeting. If that is of interest to the community. And. We're more than happy to field any questions. My email. Is. Store. At. Burlington city art. And. Any. Email that you might have. If that is of interest to the community. And. Any. Email that you might have. At. DCA would get their way to us and we'd love to. Talk more with everyone in the community. Thank you all very much. Thank you. We have time for one more. Person. At the full two minutes to speak. Is there anyone else. I will also say there's someone who got in touch. And was hoping to make an announcement on. I think they're here, but. I think Dan Cahill from the traffic department. Wanted to. Spread the word that they are looking for more crossing guards. And so. If anyone's interested. Or can pass that on. And also, since I introduced steering committee members earlier, we now have Miami from the steering committee here on zoom. So. Oh. And yeah. If that is all we'll move on to the next part where. We're going to. Have some time to talk about Tony Reddington. Barbara. Hi everybody. Jessica asked me if I would say a few words about Tony and I'm happy to do so. I serve the Tony on the war two, three MPA for. His 10 years, maybe eight for me, but he was, he was all from the time he moved to Burlington. He was a war three rep and then a war two one. Tony was a consummate activist and a true public citizen. He was a compendium of knowledge about. The fight for the city of Burlington. Road and street safety. Housing in a myriad of other subjects. In Burlington, he never owned a car. You could see him ride his bike. Everywhere and in every season. He was a founding member of the coalition for the. Livable city. Which in the last decade took on several Burlington issues, including the mall. The gentrification of City Hall Park, Burlington Telecom, the F-35, and most recently the Pine Street Coalition, he fought to make a better road than the proposed outdated and environmentally racist Champlain Parkway. He was a consummate advocate for the use of roundabouts, which he knew to be safer than most signaled intersections. We activists are often accused of being selfish and titled nimbies. Let me tell you that Tony did not have a selfish bone in his body. What he did, he did for the good of the city and everyone in it and everyone knew it. He was steadfast, indefatigable, knowledgeable, unremittingly positive, even in the way he dealt with his final illness, never complaining, always positive. He always showed up, never gave up, kept his spirits up, and he kept our spirits up, too. I can't believe I'm not going to bump into one with a Roxy or eating at City Market or at our weekly breakfast at the Friendly Toast. He is truly irreplaceable. I will miss him, and so will Burlington. I believe that the Sheldon Street roundabout that is now under construction would not be being built if it weren't for Tony. And I and others have proposed that in his honor and in his memory it be called the Reddington roundabout. I'm hoping that the NPA can somehow help operationalize this. I'm not exactly sure how. In my tradition, we say Tony Reddington may his memory be for a blessing. Thank you so much. Did anyone else want to speak about Tony? Chris? All right, does anyone else want to say anything before we move on? If there was audio on that, what Chris said, it wasn't heard on Zoom. OK, hi. So I'm Polly Vanderputten, live in Ward 3, and I've been on the school board since 2020 and I got sworn in during the pandemic, which meant everything for me happened over Zoom, and I never got to meet Tony in person. I only got a sense of him and his advocacy and his community spirit from those Zoom meetings, but I found him to be so inspiring. And I do hope we continue to make the bike and safety improvements to the streets that he would have wanted. I think that's his legacy. So I'm really going to miss him. And I say that to say this is someone I only ever met on a computer screen. Anyone else? I also, so my experience with Tony is I used to do transportation planning. And so a couple of times spoke at public meetings and he was always there. And I always had something to say, which sometimes was a little tough, but also appreciated as he was he cared a lot and he had a lot of the right ideas about things. And roundabouts are really great. They are safe and they're better for pedestrians. They also reduce pollution because cars don't idle like they do at normal intersections with a signal. So in his honor, I wanted to speak about roundabouts. And they are different from roadways, by the way. Roundabouts force you to slow down before entering them. And that's part of why they're safer. So, yeah. Great. Anyone else? Cool. We can move on to the. I'm not as passionate about it. As him, but I am inspired. So. Hi, everyone, my name is Joe. I'm the city councilor for Ward three. And like Pauley, I got elected during the pandemic and special election last year and really myself only knew Tony. On the computer and, you know, would see him riding his bike and outside various coffee shops downtown and new Tony through his very, very long and very, very plentiful emails that he would send to us. And as somebody who didn't have great knowledge of all things public works and didn't really get that great of an orientation to transportation and the complexities of it. Tony's emails were a real education for me. And I really deeply admired his commitment to a safer transportation system for all of us. And it's certainly something that will not leave me certainly for my service on the council and definitely after I leave as well. So he will certainly be missed. Thank you so much. We are now got one more person shy, but oh, well. Can you hear me? OK, so Tony brought so much to this space and I'm just going to miss him. Just he brought so much life to this space. So if there's some way we can honor him somehow, even like a little plaque or something, that would be awesome. I just want to put that out there. Reddington roundabout. Reddington roundabout. Great. Anyone else who's been thinking about speaking? And now wants to. All right. So that being said, we will move forward with our agenda. So the next hour is devoted to the high school. And we've got a couple of school commissioners here and a couple of people that will introduce themselves. Introduce ourselves. Do you guys have our presentation? I think the same one from the inside. Yeah, it's updated. Oh, thank you. I'm sure you have our attention. I could probably manage to. As we get it off. So I don't get the presentation. I have the scramble. I have. Medicals. What's that you can't okay. Nothing's broken. Actually, I was confirmed that she was yesterday. I fell off my bike during a visit. And then over my shoulder, it was like. Pretty first fall. Oh, yeah, you're right. Miss Raleigh, you speak with this thing. That's kind of. Okay. I'm good. All right, ready to go? Yeah. All right. Great. Thanks for having us, everyone. My name is Nathan Lavery. I'm the Burlington School District's executive director of finance and operations. I'm Jean Waltz on the commissioner representing the old North and that would be word two and three. Holly Vanderputten and I live in Ward three and I represent that district on the school board. Okay, great. And yeah, and I guess and I live in Ward two on Hyde Street. Okay, so we will jump into the presentation that we have. We also have some handouts, which I believe have been distributed already, which is great. So this presentation relates to the November ballot item that the school district has requesting authorization to borrow 165 million in support of building a new high school and technical center on Institute Road. Next slide, please. So we wanted to provide a really brief history of the project for those of you who may not be familiar with how we arrived at this point. In short, we began an effort a few years ago to renovate our existing high school campus. Part of that process, as folks may recall, was that we asked voters to authorize a 70 million dollar bond to support that project. During the course of that project, we discovered the presence of PCBs in the building materials within the building, as well as in some of the soils. And that ultimately meant that we could no longer continue to use the high school, which is the why the high school campus or that students are now attending in Macy's. It also after a careful analysis revealed that we could not in a fiscally responsible way actually remove the PCBs in their entirety. There were they were simply too widespread. We would never be able to guarantee a PCB free building. One question that has come up that I'll just touch on briefly is, so what happened to that 70 million dollars that were authorized? The answer is that we only spent about four million dollars of it doing preliminary design work in in anticipation of the renovation and also doing a lot of the testing that ultimately revealed the presence of the PCBs and how widespread they were. So while obviously most of that design work doesn't translate very well to a new campus, some of it did, and particularly all of that testing in the PCB work was actually contributed a lot to the project we're doing right now. So we spent four million dollars, the other 66 million dollars of that authorization is not going to be exercised. We're not going to use it at all. So some people wondered, is this ballot question in November in addition to the 70 million dollars? And the answer is no, we won't be paying repaying that 70 million dollars, but except for the four million dollars that we did spend. So that brings us to the current project. And in short, I think this is we may have one next slide, go to the next side if you don't mind. Thank you. There's a kind of timeline here that talks about how we have reached this point where we're asking voters to authorize a bond. It began with a robust public engagement process in which we talked to stakeholders, community members, students, staff of the buildings and so forth to identify what would be needed in a new high school, what attributes they wanted it to have. Our architect and our design team developed a series of concepts and ultimately the school board chose the concept that they felt best met student needs and was also the most fiscally responsible. It happened to be the least costly design option that we were presented with. Since then, additional design work has gone at a more detailed level that allowed us to really, with confidence, estimate the cost of this new building. And that estimated cost is what has kind of brought us this point. So we got got an estimated cost for the new building. I should say that the project as a whole in that estimate includes the remediation or kind of the cleanup of the PCBs in the old campus and then getting rid of all those old buildings. So that's a part of this total project cost. And and at the same time, we have identified sources of funds to pay already to pay for a large portion of the project. So even though this project will in total cost somewhat, you know, give or take probably a little around two hundred million dollars, we only need to borrow, we believe one hundred and sixty five million dollars. And to expand on that even further, we intend to continue to fund raise throughout the project and we'll talk more about that perhaps tonight. But we are confident that in the end, we may not even need to borrow the full hundred and sixty five million dollars. But again, at this point, that's how much we would need to get approval for in order to move the project forward and also having that approval, being able to show that the project's fully funding funded could potentially make us eligible for other federal assistance. So the city council agreed to put the ballot item on the November ballot. That's kind of brought us to the point today where we are now traveling around the city to make sure people understand the question, what the question means and what the project would mean for Burlington. Next slide, please. I'm going to turn it over to Joe Weith for a brief description of some of the current design from the site and and kind of some of the renderings with the what the building will look like. How about student activity? There'll be a significant amount of seating within the student commons for dining and gathering space and collaboration space for the students. The cafeteria will be located on the first level of the common. There will be a 750 seat auditorium with with balcony and a two station gymnasium both of which will be accessed off the student commons. The third station of the gymnasium will actually have a retractable wall that can be closed off and will actually have a separate entrance to the north parking area. And that gym will serve as a community gym, which can be closed off from the remainder of the gymnasium and also from the school so they can be used by the community during evening hours or weekend hours. We're also proposing a strong connection to the outdoors, which is something we've heard loud and clear from both students and teachers at the schools. The in addition to maintaining and enhancing our connection to the arms forest, natural area to the north. We're proposing to provide two outdoor learning areas that are kind of you can see them, those circular drawings on both the east end of the building and the west end will be kind of smaller amphitheater style outdoor learning areas where classes can be held throughout the day. Of course, during this weather, probably not too many classes in the winter. The building and site are also being designed to be highly energy efficient and sustainable. We will be pursuing a lean silver or better certification. Fossil fuel free energy sources will be used, including primary use of electricity with geothermal heating and cooling and solar PV. The roof structure will be solar ready for installation of solar units by a third party provider that we're currently in conversation with. There will be generous symmetrical light throughout the building. Every classroom will have windows. Again, something we've heard loud and clear from the students is something that started highly desirable. Durable, long lasting, low maintenance finishes will be used inside and out. And finally, there will be extensive bicycle connections and bike parking on the site and improved pedestrian access and need walkways and pass. But if you can just kind of scroll through, we're going to throw a few show a few renderings here. This is the south facade of the building facing Institute Road. This is the north facade showing again the the north entrance very prominent with a lot of glass providing light to the student commons area. Our next slide. This is just a typical classroom again with with windows providing actual light. Go ahead. This is a rendering of the student commons, the two level student commons. And then you can see there's going to be plenty of seating for students to eat their lunch, collaborate, work on projects. There's going to be stadium seating along the stairwell again for areas for students to sit. Next slide. Is that rendering of the 750 seat auditorium of balcony? Go ahead. And this is a rendering of the library library and media center again with a lot of glass offering natural light open floor plan and plenty of spaces and stations for the students to do their work. That might be it. OK, thanks, Joe. So obviously another natural question of this project is what is the cost mean to taxpayers? We provide some estimates about the impact. It's important to note whenever we do tax estimates related to school spending that there are a lot of variables in the state's education funding formula. And we don't know how those variables will necessarily change from year to year. Spending is just one of the variables. Another variable is the number of students that we have attending the high school. And what's more, those students are given weights by the state. That is just to go slightly off topic for a moment. That's a source of major accomplishment for your school board and for our community because the state has we passed legislation as a state that will update those weights in a way that is going to better reflect the actual needs of those students. It's an area where historically Burlington and other communities that had a large number of traditionally marginalized students were being underweighted, which effectively meant that we were paying relatively more in taxes. It was more expensive, if you will, to serve those students than it was in other communities. So that's a major, major milestone. I didn't want to overlook that today, even though it's not the main thrust of the presentation. But I also want to point out that that's an example of one of those things that's going to be changing during the life of this project and exactly what impact that will have on our tax rates won't be known until it happens because it's enrollment based and that changes every year. Having said that, we still do try to provide semester estimates to give people a flavor of what the impact will be. And when we do that, we essentially freeze all those other variables that we don't know how they'll change. And we say, let's just assume they don't change for the same argument so that people can really understand the taxes vis-a-vis what they're paying today. Once we fully bond for $165 million, we're estimating that will increase the education property tax rate by a little over 15 percent, as you can see on the slide. And we've done some estimates for what that would mean for a homeowner who pays property taxes on a $370,000 home. And we've also estimated what that could mean for a taxpayer, what the increase could be for a taxpayer who's paying but receives an education tax credit. So on the next slide, you don't have to try to read this from your from your seats. Just know that it can be accessed online. We've put together a little bit of a chart that explains what the implication should be on property taxpayers for range of different house site values. Just today, in fact, they had a conversation, a consultation I might call it with some someone from the tax department, because the next thing we're trying to produce is kind of a similar chart that would apply to people who receive the education income tax credit. So we don't have that done yet, but that's in the works and we're hoping that'll be published next week. Next slide, please. Yeah. And this chart, which again is going to ultimately start including information about income payers as well. Our income base payers is intended to show that even with a full hundred and sixty five million dollar operation, we're not going to need to borrow or spend that money all at once. This is a multi year project. Even the construction is going to take place over a couple of years. So we have estimated the timing of when we will borrow the money. And the reason that's important is because every time we borrow the money, that is going to trigger obviously having to begin repaying those borrowed funds. And it's those repayments, the what's called the annual debt service that actually results in a budget increase and therefore impacts taxes. So as you can see from the slide up here, we are anticipating that borrowing probably to occur over three phases, which means that the increases in taxes associated with this project won't be felt all at once. We're not going to go from zero to one hundred sixty five and tax rates jump right up in one year, rather it will be phased in over a period of probably three, possibly even four years. So this chart is intended to show both the phasing in and also how toward the end of the borrowing period, as we retire some of that debt, that is to say, we fully repay it than the tax rate. Relatively speaking, we'll decrease vis-a-vis what it was when we were repaying that next slide, please. One of the things that we're proud of in terms of what we've accomplished so far is the fact that we have identified a number of sources of funds to help reduce the cost to taxpayers already. I want to emphasize that that work is not done. We're going to continue to do that work, not only through November, but even beyond November through the next legislative session pursuing existing programs. So we have every intent to identify as much money as possible so that even if we receive authorization to borrow one hundred sixty five million dollars, we hope not to do that because every dollar that we can spend on this school that comes from something other than our bonding means that it's not coming from our local taxes. So having said that, to highlight some of the funds we've identified, we've identified thirty five million dollars of funds through various sources that we have access to already, including five million dollars and estimated that we can we can save over the course of the next few years through our careful budget management. Ten million dollars of federal ESR money, which is money that is associated with recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten million dollars that were reallocating from our long term capital plan to this project specifically. And we also have ten million dollars from a congressional grant that we are putting toward relocating some of the tech center programs to the airport. Doing that. Doing that relocation reduces the size of the building on Institute Road. And when you reduce the size of the building on Institute Road, you reduce the cost of that building. So that was a major victory. It's also a very exciting opportunity to locate some of our really great VTC programs up at the airport doing cutting edge work and in collaboration with a really exciting, innovative partner in beta technologies. As I mentioned, we're continuing to continue to pursue other funding sources. One thing that we are just starting to get off the ground is private fundraising from kind of what you might traditionally think of fundraising, right? Looking for donors. So that that initiative is just being being launched and we're optimistic in how we're hearing more about that in the near future. But our major potential right now that we've identified in terms of fundraising is really through existing state and federal programs. Those programs do things like provide incentives related to building energy efficiency, the environmental condition of the building, the stormwater impact, potentially cleaning up the PCBs. There's a lot of different opportunities there. We're trying to explore them all at the same time and we have retained a professional firm to help us do that. I guess the last thing I would say on the fundraising element that I think is worth really understanding is that some of those sources are going to take time to materialize because again, these are programs that you have to apply for sometimes some of these programs that are relatively new, such as parts of the major federal infrastructure bill that you might have heard past recently, they don't even have the details of what the application process will look like yet. So we're optimistic that we'll be able to take advantage of those programs, but we're not even at a point where we could say we know what the application looks like. So really, again, our commitment is not to let that fundraising effort drop even as we move forward with the construction, even if we get an approval to bond for the 465 million. And I think we might have one more slide on timeline. Yep. So we've got some town halls coming up one in September. Obviously, the November 8th bond vote, that's voting day. Folks here are probably pretty familiar with the fact that you can vote early in Vermont, but that's the last day that you can vote. If the bond passes, we expect to begin, or at least we hope to begin tearing down the old buildings as early as possibly even late December, but certainly early in the winter in 2023. That is important because getting those buildings out of the way is what sets the stage for starting to do the new construction to follow. And if we have to wait and do some of that demolition in the warm months that are really more favorable to actually building something, then we could lose a significant amount of time because then we might have to wait through the winter to do some other construction. So, you know, it's not as simple as a project delay of one month necessarily means the whole thing just gets pushed back a month. It can be if you miss certain deadlines, there's big delays in the product. So that's why we're going to try to move very quickly if we get this authorization. And ultimately, the target move in date to the new high school is in August 2025. We know that's an ambitious move in date, but we've been assured by our design team that it's achievable, particularly if we hit some of the early milestones in the process. So we know it's asking a lot, but we also know that we have students right now who are in Macy's the former Macy's building, which is was a great emergency space, but is not not a proper high school for our students. So we believe that it's critically important that we move this project as quickly as possible to culminate in the new building and allowing it to open to students in August 2025. So I think we'll stop there and I don't know if there's statements or questions next questions. You want to talk first? There's just a couple of things I wanted to add, but I know that a lot of people who are here and who might be on the Zoom now question. Could you please go back to the first slide? So what came up for me, these are questions that I continue as we've been getting from people across the city, not just here in our neighborhood. So the original shutdown that happened was because of our renovation project and were required by state law to test for various toxins. At the time, the Vermont Department of Health had what was seen as a really conservative threshold, but a necessary threshold for safety to measure how many PCVs were air built. So that's where it started and that got us kind of on the radar of the federal EPA to say what's actually going on here. And that's when we learned that we had really high amounts of PCVs significantly in building out, which I think was the former tech center, but all over the high school and that they were not just airborne, that they were deep in the concrete and masonry and windows. So this is really important because the question comes up, why are you not just remediating? Why not just change out the windows? Why not change out the floors? And I think that Nathan spoke to that because it's just not feasible to do it without having a building that's not totally PCV free and it would be super expensive. I would add to that, that along the way in the past couple of years, the state changed its threshold and they made it more specific to kindergarten age and then elementary school and then high school and what acceptable levels would be. But regardless, the levels are still way too high in the current building. So even though they changed the levels, which muddied things a bit for us on the school board, it didn't actually change the situation, which is that the school is silly with these PCVs, which can cause a host of health problems, in particular neurotoxilogical effects on children. So we really need to consider that when we think about like, why are we going through the school? The last thing I'll say on that topic is maybe you can talk about this a little bit. People have asked me then about the soil. So why are we building on the same site? And we went through a whole process of looking at many different sites and saying while we own this property and it's the best site and the site where the athletic fields currently are, where we have to track, was considered that was not considered a good site because of the existing soils there. If I remember correctly, they're not really stable. They're very sandy, right? Yeah. So that was not a good option to have a school built there. And there is some kind of concrete topography on the side of Institute Road where we've decided to rebuild, but it's the best site that we have. And the design that we chose after we demolish the school will allow for a containment of the PCB. So that idea of a super fun site rather than dredge things up and release the toxins. We remove the school and then we cover the site with the parking lot and the existing building so that those things are not then coming back up and affecting the school. Joe White, will you please confirm that what I said is true? I don't know if I can confirm that, but you know, the soils that are contaminated with the PCBs, those will need to be removed and they'll have to go to a certified landfill. The other types of contaminated soils are what are known as urban soils. And, you know, those are just soils that are contaminated from being in a city with industrial air pollution that settles there over time. Those soils can be relocated on the site and capped with the paid parking lot or building or something like that. But the PCBs will need to be removed. And when you said finally, so I think you meant so much more about the talk you were talking about the soils here. I just mean, let's define fun and that's more about the positioning of the school is avoiding the bedrock. Yeah, also being part of the expensive. Right. That's exactly what I meant. There's rock and there's also sand and there's also there used to be a dairy plant. So there's all kinds of stuff happening on that site. And there's a hill, right? Yeah, yeah. Just one last thing that I think is noteworthy. A lot of times in these projects, people are concerned about their students ability to access extracurricular activities. And one thing here that will not change is the access to the athletic field. So even though students are still at downtown VHS for classes, they will be able to continue to do sports, which I think is hugely important and became a very important theme in the so I'll stop there. I just want to add that the school board is really committed to vetting all of these decisions and all of the different options. I feel really good about the work that we've done and feel incredibly, you know, the information that we're getting feels very thorough. Of the priorities. Timeliness, I think, is probably at the top of the list because of the student experience part of why this has been such a difficult why it's been such an emotionally charged situation because the kids were learning remotely and were about to go back to school when the school was shut down, when they were when and they had to go back to remote learning. So super unfortunate. Macy's might be one of the most out of the box funky things, but that's not necessarily fun. It's the best case scenario of a lot of not great scenarios. So the sooner we can get them in a new building, the better and it being cost effective is it's really the second the second priority. And of course, we are so committed to doing it right the first time. Speaking about the durability the material, the idea is this building is going to be it's just sturdy. I don't know what other word to say, but 50 years from now there's not going to be the kinds of deterioration or scenarios which oh, we have to sink another five hundred thousand dollars into it. That should not be happening with the choices that one questions and answers now. Do people come up to a mic or are you going to say? Hi there, I'm just making sure this is on Charlie. Can you hear the Brian Pine? I live on Crowley Street. I serve as the city's CEDO director. But my question is two things. Please avoid using the word superfund site in relation to this property, because it's really a totally different characterization than a brown field. And I don't believe super fund would be what EPA would call the high school site. Despite the contamination, it's important to know there's a difference, a pretty big, pretty big difference. So I just want to know who analyzed the cost benefit analysis of the geothermal versus sticking with the wood fire plant that is on the property now. And I think that's quite a life left in it. So I'm just wondering about the cost of that strategy. I can kind of answer that question. The design team would be better suited to answer it. But we do have a mechanical engineer who is running energy modeling on the new building. And we've had a geothermal test wells. Moring's on the site and shows that there's there's a good opportunity for geothermal. But I guess their their modeling has shown that it would be much more efficient to run the heating and cooling system with the geothermal system because the existing wood chip plant, I guess, is oversized. It's because it was designed for a very inefficient building. So my understanding is that because it is oversized, it would be very inefficient to use them as the heating store. And I guess the cost, I don't know what the cost would be to downsize it. But their determination so far has been that it would not be cost effective. To continue to use it. They are still evaluating it, though, as to whether or not they could continue to use it in the backup system. Just to add one other element to that response, it's a good question. And it's it's a good point that that wood chip oiler system that we have so has life reflected, right? It's not it was built much more recently. Joe talked about kind of the fact that even though it's more, more recently built, it was built to support a very inefficient school. And that's one of the kind of interesting parts of this whole process is that when you build a new building, you don't just get the benefit of it being new. You get the benefit of all of the efficiency progress that we have made in the decades since the building was built, as well as simply a more compact design that lends itself inherently to more efficiency. So we don't we won't necessarily need as much of that heating. The other thing that that's important to understand about that is that and I think folks in years, some people may be familiar with the city having a target of a kind of net zero 2030 target. And so while this building won't be commissioned in 2030 and in that sense won't be fully net zero when it opens in all likelihood, although it's still possible. The wood chips are energy that comes from off the site. And so the idea of being net zero was like you're generating the energy that you use in the building. And so that's one of those examples where by going to geothermal, we also are better able to compile the net 30 kind of approach to generate as much of the energy for the building on site. And and we're certainly going to be working closer to the B.D. for incentives and other pro-electric that is for incentives and other opportunities to make efficiency investments in the bill. Thank you. I actually wanted to follow it's interesting that that's overbuilt because it seems like a pretty good opportunity for district heating. You know, you're down Rock Point, the Atlanta Church, you know, the news watch, you know, they're looking at it for the Medical Center, the Rantwell. That's something that would be kind of interesting because there's a lot of a lot of talk in our country about district heating. It's big in Europe and, you know, it's oversized that actually might be a great opportunity. As far as the geothermal, you know, I've been involved with the Sustainability Academy. It has a beautiful geothermal system there, but nobody seems to have anything to go on. Does it save them much or anything? You know, it's something that's been asked to be in others, but it'd be great to calibrate with that site. You know, it would be great because, you know, especially with Champlain College, they have a little different geothermal system. They are doing very well. So it'd be kind of good not to just model, but to bring in some calibration because that's something we typically don't see on these large projects. And we don't see much follow-up. So that, I mean, that's a big cost, obviously, and especially I mean, operating moving down the road. The community general idea is, but I mean, you know, we're asking a lot from the community, you know, to support the school. I feel very strongly we need it. This should be a chronicle of our community. It's our future, our kids. And, you know, part of it is to not be isolated, right? Probably not. So I, that came out of the loop from what I've seen with one. That's great. I really appreciate that. And also on the, you know, kind of the Superfund site, yeah, definitely would be very precise with terms on that. However, we should look to see what's happening in the city here, because sometimes even Superfund sites that are kept and intended to never use again, people look to do things on it. So I know, you know, there's been talk in the past that had different maintenance and other offices on that building. So the soil is kept. Make sure that it's in a spot that will never be developed or can't be developed. I'll bring that up. Thank you. Before we continue, I would like to apologize for the innocent activities. I'm not an expert. And I was attempting to make an analogy not to characterize the site in that way or to say that I have talked to any experts who had characterized the site in that way, but to say that there is a lot of concern in the community about our decision to build a new school on top of a place that has been shut down because of toxins. So my idea was an attempt at putting people at ease. But I do understand that words have power and that they are quotable and that that's a very strong word and a different classification than what I was talking about. So it was not my intention to complicate things by saying that, but to put people at ease about this massive construction project. We are trying to get together on half the question. And speaking of part of the urgency is to be able to demolish and remove and remediate what students not on the campus. And I'm sure everybody knows when they see it's going through this what looks like a fantastic addition, project, renovation, actually a combination of all those things while the students are in other classes. It's noisy. Also, they're in one class maybe for six months. I'm not exactly sure, but I do know some students are in have been in different classes, classrooms and they've had to move. It's very disruptive. Obviously, we don't want our students around toxins that might become well, I am positive that there is tons of regulations around a construction site with PCBs. But the further away the students can be while that happens, the better. And the sooner we can have a lot. So I want to also point out the the bond asked the language needs to be decided first by board, then by the city council, both have. Hi, did you guys have a unanimous vote? Great, sort of the sort of the school board to approve approving the language that goes on the bond. But that happened. What does that happen to for city council? No, it's really. So. But that's for no good. So this is why fundraising is going to happen, right? And grants are being researched. All that stuff is going to happen. From now until the end of the project, maybe even after. And but there's no way we can responsibly begin to enter into contracts with these humongous entities, right? And not really actually have the money secured. As much as I think a lot of people do great things by putting the cart before the horse. That does not seem like good practice right now. So we have to ask for what we actually might need. So seeing that there are more questions, I thought I might just close. I know we don't have any suitable. There's there is another question. Sorry, I'm getting kitchen cleanup. So I'm trying to do both things. I'm just curious as well out there, but would it be possible for BED to own improvements like the energy systems? And that way they keep on farm and raiders would pay which is a broader group of contributors. So they could own the geothermal they could own everything that's related that you can package. This happens on Wall Street, by the way. You can package everything. You can package the thermal chemical and they would own that and lease it to the district. We can certainly we can certainly ask about that. That's a great idea. They we've already had a preliminary conversation with them. They didn't bring that up specifically. It doesn't mean obviously they can put back and ask them. They may they may have it fast to do that or not. But it's a good question. I think they have already committed to generating kind of a comprehensive list of all these things that they can offer for the project. That's obviously different than what you're talking about. But I'm not sure you were you may have been in the kitchen when you mentioned that. I will just say it's a cautionary note. That I think that's one of those those ideas that like even if we were to pursue it, that will that might add that might be that might take a significant amount of time to get there because in order for the electorate department to potentially bond for that they probably have to go back to the voters as well. So that could add, you know, it's certainly worth like figuring out. I just that was my immediate record of that was like we would we would still want to go forward with obviously our hundred sixty five million dollar ask just in terms of making sure that the project can move forward even if we continue to kind of explore that that idea. Or could you do a joint bond question so that there's authority to have either one? We couldn't do it. We couldn't do it at this point because the deadline to submit the language for the November ballot to the early voting is passing that that would have to be like a future so like maybe questions potentially if there was an avenue to it. I know there's like business as usual kind of thing where you're like long time. But given the magnitude in the scale of this and how most people don't pay attention until after the break and then they look at this number and they're just like no way. So I would just encourage for the district and our kids benefit, you know, that that that might take too much time is just kind of this as usual answer and you know, and that the I don't think we can afford that. I think ideas have to be brought forth at an accelerated case even if they're crazy and get people up on them, you know, to really research. It's a thing. There's firms that do this. They count it and, you know, people benefit in many things. Yeah, absolutely. No, I appreciate the idea of this is a good one and something that I'm happy to to bring to be these attention. And I think, you know, one thing that was mentioned, I think it's worth closing on just in brief is because I see we don't I believe have any students or we have another question. OK, sure. Sorry. Just wanted to elevate, you know, I really appreciate all the work we all done in the concern and the need for a to, you know, have this move along at a clip. But with the kind of education and awareness piece, I was wondering what are you sensing from the community at large and what kind of, you know, programs and, you know, communication and actually, I think, you know, this is supposed to be representative, you know, community, different community representatives and organizations. What do you need from community groups and from institutions and in order to support, you know, a passage or is or you're getting positive responses? But mainly like, what do you need from institutions and from community folks right now? I'm not an authority that was kind of ties into what I wanted to say. And I'm sure that people here would like to weigh in too. My sense is that we're in a crisis situation. We need that. We need to be in my school and tech center. And that kind of by default puts people in favor of it, even if they're holding their breath and feeling really panicked at the prospect of yet another increase in their taxes. Think they can understand what and why it is needed. So for me, it is people need to go, yes, to get the project moving. But then to your question about community involvement, we really need help with getting that money back through different sources, through different avenues in order not to have to have a one hundred sixty five million dollar one. So it's kind of it's kind of inverted. Yes, times of the essence. And I think we're all going to be knocking on doors and going to meetings and trying to encourage people to ask questions and get support before they vote on November eight. But then after that, it was critical in order for us to actually save money for taxpayers to find different avenues for us to get money for the PCV remediation. There's been money included by the state. Twenty million dollars initially that is money for the entire state because they acknowledge that there are PCVs not just in Burlington, but in many other schools. But we have yet to learn how we can access some of that money to go towards remediation. So that kind of thing to put together the really bright community involved and aged people of Burlington toward efforts to not have to end up actually having one hundred sixty five million dollars to pay back how much taxes. Those are my thoughts on. I think the first thing that came to mind was. Just a lot of folks are. Well, we're aware that Vermont is one of the states that doesn't have this thing called construction aid for education purposes. And I look back at how many maintenance type things were deferred and how the building kind of for the buildings ended up in such a of course state. And I mean, I really don't know what it has meant over the past five decades to not have had that kind of. Have a fun to be able to do routine maintenance or no, not routine maintenance. That would be more like emergency necessary. I don't actually, you know, not having construction aid. I don't know a lot about it. So it's hard to tell, but that is something that I know that are our representatives state and house representatives are advocating for that. It's totally prudent, but that is definitely a way that our community members can. Become civically engaged and let it be known. You cannot. Tell all schools to operate in such a way and be able to provide programs when the roof is leaking. It's just really hard. You know, I think about even my own state of what I want to focus on as a commissioner. We all have to be all hands on deck right now when it comes to. Passing this bond and letting people know just yet, we are in a crisis. We need for this to happen. We need voters to support the bond. And I want it. I want that to happen so that I can go and do the other work, which is about actually, you know, serving students and programming and maybe that actually means revising a policy about something that I really hope is going to come down to a meaningful experience for our students. So. So yes, so we can get back to doing the real work, which is figuring out how to educate and serve our students better. We might have another question here with the microphone. Hi. In addition to the items that you mentioned in terms of seeking additional funding from a variety of other sources, is there any particular plan to go to create some kind of endowment and see if we can get private contributions? So those individuals that may be able to donate to the school. Is there, you know, thinking of UVM and what they do in terms of keeping track of their alumni? I know I get that special letter and envelope every so often. Do we do anything like that with the high school? You know, maybe some adult alumni might consider if they were reached out to, you know, making some kind of donation and supplementing the need that way. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Maybe, and I apologize if I wasn't clear enough when I talked about the fundraising, but yes, so we are just, we actually just recently announced the partnership with the Burlington Students Foundation and aimed at doing exactly that. So those efforts are just kind of in their infancy and just launching. We've invested more time and energy in some of those big federal programmatic approaches to raising other funds, but definitely that's a piece of that total portfolio. And, you know, hindsight being what it is, sure, we would love to have said 20 years ago, we started in viciously track, keeping track of all the graduates and we know how to reach them and we could do exactly what UVM and every other major college or university across the country does. We don't have that. So we are kind of building it from scratch on the fly. But I think we'll still have some measure of success, particularly because it's no secret to people who are still in and around Burlington, what's going on here. And so I'm hopeful that we will generate some real excitement around that effort, even if it doesn't, in terms of like the total financial contribution, even if it doesn't match some of those, the potential of those federal programs, I think it'll be meaningful for people. And there are gonna be opportunities big and small too. I mean, there's ways that we're talking about to allow people, certainly anyone can make a donation, but, you know, simple things that you can do that are enticed people like it can be, you know, having your little name on, as we've done like in in con toys and, you know, having your name or your organization's name on the back of an auditorium seat or something like that. Doesn't mean you're donating millions of dollars if that's not within your means, but it gives people a chance to do something and be part of that, the legacy of the building. Wow. I've heard a lot about the long-term financial implications in terms of this bond, which is kind of a negative view of it. I'd like to take that and flip it and say, this is a long-term financial investment in our city that people are leaving and have left. Personally, no people who have left because we don't have high school and people are not coming. And that also has long-term financial implications and it also makes us impoverished as a community because we don't get new people who are, I think, the lifeblood of keeping us going. So there's a lot of research about building schools and people saying, wow, that's where I wanna live. And I think that a lot of us here feel that way already about Burlington, but it would be great if we could get this and be really proud of it and give it to our community and also then bring new people in to continue to thrive. So not so much implications, but investment. How are we making a significant power for long-term investment in our city? And I think it really is with this bond. Hey, well, just to close, I wanted to highlight for folks because this wouldn't be obvious from our presentation, I think, but just how valuable, not just generally, the public input has been in the design process, but in particular, some of the input we've received from students, we're really intentional about making sure that we've created opportunities for some authentic conversations with students in the process. And I think you can see a lot of their ideas and things that they supported in this design, the abundance of natural light, particularly in the classrooms, the connection to the outdoors that Joe mentioned and having outdoor classroom spaces and being able to make use of the whole campus as is something important. That student comments idea, we've heard a lot from students that they wanted opportunities to meet with each other and collaborate that were outside of the structured classroom setting. So I think for those who here maybe have a student who will eventually attend, or if you're watching them over and you're wondering kind of how we are trying to translate what students are saying into the design of the building, you can know that we have been intentional about doing that. And I think what we've received from students has been really great feedback and has made this a much better and more exciting design. So I think that's just worth calling out, easy to overlook of this process and something that was, I think, for me at least a really powerful experience. So I wanted to share that with the group. And why is I think we can say thanks everyone for being here or attending virtually and certainly if you have any other questions, we have a website where you can find information and you can write to us. We're happy to respond. You're school commissioners. I know, love getting questions. So I'm sure you know how to reach them. And yeah, thanks very much for having us. All right, thank you. Where, let's see, it's almost eight. Jamie and Polly, did you have any other like school commission updates other than what was part of this? Only that. The start of the school year has been great. It has been great to come in without masks. And we're hearing really good things from the classrooms. They did a lot of work at the downtown. We adjust the summer, noise mitigation is happening. It's really not as bad as it had been. Sports are up and running. Musicals, elementary schools are doing well. There's just a lot of really happy news from the proper district about the start of the school year. I just want to put a plug in for, we're still looking for para educators, especially para educators. And I know that the requirements or job qualifications, wherever you want to put it, I know that it's a minimum of two years in college or a certain amount of credits, but there is also a test that people can take. So for those that are interested in possibly dismiss the idea of applying, this is all I don't know an associate's degree or I haven't done a college yet, there might be another way to get more experience. I think when you look at school credit, like experience or work experience, there's alternative ways to qualify. And I think it's just not as well-known as it should be. I'm trying to get better about getting that message out. Well, I'm thinking once you're ready. Sure, I'm gonna can go and grab one of these. Sure. Yeah. Here too? You're gonna go now or? Sure. Why don't you go first and then I'll go back to that. How long do you think I wanna get it right? Okay. Sure. Absolutely. All right. Hi, everyone. I don't have too many updates tonight, but I'm happy to answer questions that folks have. I know it's been a while since we've had an MPA meeting. So I have an update related to the city's efforts to get cannabis, retail cannabis licenses issued. At our August 15th meeting, we passed a resolution establishing a local cannabis control board. The state is gonna be issuing retail cannabis licenses as soon as October 1st. So there's really an effort on the part of the city to have our process in place so that we can be ready to meet those deadlines. And the businesses that are more or less ready to open will be able to apply for licenses soon. I think the city will have that application open in the coming weeks. The License Committee will be meeting September 14th to review some of those. So that will be happening soon and we encourage folks to check out that meeting. They'll be the first sort of meeting where they're looking at those licenses for a few retail businesses that are planning to open in Burlington in the next month or so. I also wanted to take a moment to talk about so efforts that I've been working on with other counselors and members of the Board of Health around gun violence prevention. I know the Board of Health, I think, met this evening. They're gonna be talking about some efforts that we can undertake as a city to put gun violence prevention from the center for our community, efforts that we can ask for the legislature to look into and along those lines, I've been meeting with some of our Burlington delegation to discuss those efforts as well. I think we all are pretty shocked at the increase in gun violence that we've seen over the last couple of years and we really need to be pursuing more prevention efforts. It's tragic that it's gotten to the level that it has and we should have been doing more before now, before it got to this point. But I'm committed to pursuing prevention efforts now and really building community around this and getting people involved in that. So to the extent that folks wanna be involved in those efforts, I think hopefully we'll be seeing a plan come to the council from the Board of Health at some point and look forward to engaging with folks on that. The last thing that I wanna mention is I've reached out to the NPA about having a community meeting regarding some of the rodent issues that we've had in the western part of the Old North End. I know that many folks have been dealing with that and then it's an ongoing issue and then we wanna make sure that this doesn't spread beyond what we've seen already. So to the extent that folks are dealing with those issues and need assistance from the city, I know Director Ward and permitting inspections have been on top of that. The Board of Health has also discussed it. So there are resources available. If folks have any questions about that, please reach out. So happy to answer any other questions that folks have, but otherwise we'll see the floor to either Gene or Emma. Gene? Any questions that you got there, Joe? Is anybody being on Zoom here kind of hard to see? I think you're good to go. Okay. I wanna use this as just an intro to an item that I hope that we can have a special agenda item in October or November, which is all legal resident voting in local elections. If some of you may recall that Montpelier and Winooski have opened up the right to vote in local elections to any resident that is a legal resident of the city and legally residing in the United States regardless of whether they are a citizen or not. And the Charter Change Committee of which I chair has been looking at the work that both Winooski and Montpelier have done and have prepared a Charter Change that we are hoping to bring forward to the council to vote on, to put it on the March ballot. There's actually one other one that we're still working on relating to the siting of polling places. But what we're engaged in right now is a community engagement process to talk to people about the details of all legal resident voting in local elections and get feedback, get questions. We're reaching out to the Trusted Community Voices and the Advisory Committee for New Americans and other NPAs and everywhere that we possibly can. So I'm sort of making this foray into the NPA as part of our engagement process. And rather than go on and on, I can just sort of leave it there and see if there's anybody that has any questions about that right off the bat. And I guess I'm not seeing or hearing any and I'll take that as a positive sign. And so far, we've been to and talked with all of the elected ward election officials, the ward clerks and the inspectors of election. We've talked with the Board of Voter Registration. We're working with the mayor and the city manager in Wenduski and in Montpelier and of course working very closely with our own city clerk's office who is in charge of coordinating and running local elections. And what I can tell you is that we have not heard any opposition to this. We've gotten some great questions in terms of how the logistics are gonna work, but it's very heartening. And for those of you who want to see a full-throated endorsement of this item, you can try to dig back or I can send you my North Avenue nose counselor corner piece where I try to make that pitch. So that's the main thing that I wanted to talk about. And thanks, I'll turn it over to Emma then. Hi everyone, I'm a state representative, Emma Mulvaney-Stanik. I represent what is now called Chittenden 17, which is basically from Park Street over to the lake. And then all the way up to Ethan Allen. Ethan Allen, sorry, I've had a very long work day. Homestead, although there's a couple of blocks across the way and then also up to Letty Park. So as everyone probably knows, it's the off session for the legislature. So it's a bit of a quiet time. However, it's never really quiet when it comes to state policy, what happens with the administration or lack thereof. And it's a little hard in the design of the Vermont legislature, because when we're off session, those of us who have to work for a living go off to our other jobs and to stay on top of and really monitor what's happening is somewhat difficult. And I use that as a lead-in because I wanted to make sure, and I was trying to search on my phone, although I forgot you can't get really good self coverage here in this space, but I did find the email at least. I wanted to make sure folks, because a lot of Vermonters, there's probably at least a couple of thousand Vermonters who've been using the VRAP program since COVID relief funds have been available. That's the rental assistance program is a companion program that's also available for utility bill assistance. So you might have seen in the media and it's really concerning because out of, it felt really out of nowhere without a lot of communication at all from the governor. The program is going to abruptly end for any new applications on October 1st for rental assistance. This is a little bit of because money was not, they were not on top of how much money was going out. Obviously there's all a huge economic need. We know this here in Chittenden County slash Burlington was so much spiking in rental rates, let alone people still recovering from COVID and the pandemic and the impact on our economy. So it's quite upsetting. I wanna make sure people know that. I do not think that is being communicated well to folks on the program or who might want to still access the program, but I wanna be clear the VRAP program is gonna stop taking new applications for rent and other expenses related to housing by on October 1st, which is really in just two weeks. The utility applications will continue through December 31st, but essentially this is because they've run out of money. So again, the problem here is that structurally we don't meet as a legislature until January. So even if the governor proposes in his budget or we wanna propose in the actual budget additions, there's gonna be a gap and that's a problem. And I wanna make sure people are aware of that. So if people have any, and the other piece I wanna say is that any participant in the program right now who receives section eight will also no longer be eligible for assistance. I think this has a dramatic impact on especially folks in our neighborhood. And again, our hands are a bit tied as legislators to respond to this until January. So I wanted to put up a big flag. If people have questions, I'm happy to help folks as much as I can outside this meeting. So that's the first one. And the second piece is so as I said, we're not in session, but this is the time to start thinking about legislation to put forward. I've talked a bit in last session at last MPAs around my intention to advance gun policy and some abortion rights issues outside of article 22, which is on the general election ballot that will change the constitution for reproductive liberty. There's more that could be done. Tonight I just wanted to flag that folks might know me. No, I've spent a lot of years of my life in the labor movement. I try to also advance labor bills. And so this year I'm working with a couple of organizations to put a bill in around just cause employment rights. That's different than just cause eviction rights. So similar concept though, where folks who, cause most Vermonters work as at will employees in the state of Vermont cause they do not benefit from having a union. And so they can essentially be terminated. Their job, they could be fired for pretty much any reason. And even though we have job discrimination laws on the books in Vermont around gender racial identity, et cetera is tremendously difficult to prove that. And there's a thousand and one reasons why an employer can just decide to terminate you. So this seems like a very important piece around power dynamics and making sure that Vermonters are protected in their place of employment. And to really make it a pretty clear bill about what we mean around the good, what are the good cause reasons for someone to be terminated? So that'll be a bill, I'll be advancing. And the second one related to labor, I have many others cause this is my main area, but I'll be putting forward with representative Brian Sheena, a labor omnibus bill, which is a fancy word for miscellaneous bill to further add more labor rights for workers. And that would include things like making it easier to organize unions. So there's the thing called car check. I won't go into the details, but majority signup is another way to describe it. It would take one step out of the unionization process. And if anyone's been watching Starbucks and Amazon and other entities, that's actually on the federal level, but similar process, there's three steps and every step takes time, which is more time for employers to intimidate workers and to hold things like captive audience meetings, et cetera. And that's another piece among this sort of multi-pronged bill to look at trying to really empower workers so that they, then when you go to your workplace there is not a power indifference which can really harm you economically if you decide to organize a union or want to stand up for yourself or there's health and safety issues, whatever that might be. So more to come, but I thought I would, as I was driving here from another meeting, I thought that was to be the things I would try to mention and I'm happy to answer questions on that or other things. I was very surprised when I found out that our tick minimum wage is basically a vestige of Jim Crow that's still kind of hanging out here in 2022. So I don't know if you have an update on that, but I was very curious about that. They wanted four people to tears, but that is also one of the issues that I'll put in this on of us still, because great point, Chris, because I think a lot of books, especially white folks don't understand the history of a lot of these bifurcated pieces of economic policy that have been built intentionally. And even here in Vermont and many states still have this sub tiered minimum wage for tip workers. And so that means that in Vermont, even though our minimum wage is, don't quote me, is 10, $11, whatever it is an hour at this point, tip workers, it's half of that. And in theory, you're supposed to make that up every week by the tips you are receiving, but that's a funky process at best for anyone who's worked in a industry where tips are a regular thing. So eliminating that has been something a handful of states have done. I think that is absolutely something we should pursue. And I didn't introduce the bill last session, but I will be this session on that issue. That is a big issue. We made others in the same portion of the report. It's just like why are there a problem? Well, because of racism and sexism. Just those little things. I'll be dismantling that next session. Yes. Thanks, Emma. I wanted to come back to the Vermont Rental Assistance Program. There's a Spanish speaking custodian who speaks very little English, who I try to help with certain tech things and bureaucratic things, who showed me that she had received an email the other day. And it's really long. And I didn't have time in that moment. And I don't speak Spanish. So to help her, but I was wondering, what are the steps for New Americans and non-English speaking people to understand that this benefit is coming to an end? And are there organizations specifically where they could go? Like someone said to me, maybe migrant justice for this particular person is the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, a place that people from that part of the world could go to who are living here. What are the steps people could take to better understand how that has changed and how they might access other benefits if there are any at all? That is a great question. And I don't think they honestly have that in place yet. So at various points, I'll double check of course, but at various points along the way, technical support in the sense of having folks who speak the language folks need or just accessibility in general, because as you said, the state communicates often in long texts, which even if English is your primary language is hard to navigate period and understand and then navigate deadlines with everything else we try to handle. So VRAP has been run by the Vermont State Housing Authority, but I know there's been a lot of partners along the way. And I just, I'm not sure in terms of language access and accessibility throughout the last few years of COVID on all these types of programs, I'm not sure if they're at the table because obviously they should be compensated and need to be compensated. But with this fast change, I'm not sure that those technical services are online and communicating as they need to. So that is what a few of us legislators are trying to jump on top of since this news is less than a week old of all these gaps, right? So people aren't literally left out in the cold, which I fear is what we're really headed towards. So that's a great question. I will follow up if you want to. Thank you. It's nice to be in her in person. Thank you everyone. My name you go ahead with your question. My question was just about, so everybody on section eight can no longer get help from BRAP. Let me just look back at the exact email it says participants who receive rental assistance such as section eight will no longer be eligible for assistance. And I'm connecting the dots here as of October 1st. The program, you know what? I don't know who's asking that question. Let me double check because they don't finish that thought here in the list of changes that are happening. I don't wanna provide misinformation about that, but they do clearly say their rental assistance is no longer, if you're on section eight is no longer, you will no longer be eligible for assistance. And I just need to know what the drop date is on that. Do you know, can you tell me your name so I can follow up with you? Miami. Could walk around and ask my question like an MC work in the room, but no, I'll go back to my seat. Yeah, I just wanted to follow up with you all from the council. Jail, no, I live pointed to the Marketplace Commission. Thank you guys. One of the things I'm sure you're all aware of that we've seen a lot of in downtown recently is the gun violence issue. And I don't think it takes a PhD in criminology to take a walk through City Hall Park and see that there's some questionable activity going on to say the least. And with the advent of the shelter pod village, which I think is moving along steadily, I'm wondering if we're going to see a transition plan to move folks out of the park and into the shelter pod village. I think there's a concern not only from residents regarding the activities going on there, but certainly we're seeing a bit of a spillover effect on the Marketplace and it's creating issues. So I'm just wondering what the plan is for dealing with the many challenges posed by the current environment in City Hall Park. And for the record, I had asked Director White at one of the mayor's coffee and she declined to elaborate. You asked who? Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. Sure. Yeah, thanks, Chris. I think we're dealing with a lot of overlapping challenges right now when it's, whether it's related to the housing crisis, mental health crisis, substance use and overdose. The shelter pod community on Elmwood Ave is going to help alleviate some of those issues. It's going to help with, there'll be 35 beds there. CVOEO will be helping provide services to folks who are living there. CVOEO, Howard Street Outreach, the CSL teams have been communicating with the folks who are experiencing houselessness, who are currently sheltering outside. So I think in the coming weeks we'll have a little bit more to say about what the plan will be for helping folks access housing through the shelter pod community. I think this is really going to take partnerships with folks in state government, city government because the shelter pod community is not going to be the end all be all solution for us here. And so to that end, I have been working with other folks on whether it's, I've met with the Street Outreach team the other day. We're working on the crisis response team, which hopefully will be up and running in the next couple of months. I've been pushing the administration to give us an update on that. Hopefully we'll see something in one of our next council meetings here. And then the other piece of this is, advocating for overdose prevention sites and other harm reduction measures because I think we had somebody who had a fatal overdose in City Hall Park just the other day. So there are a lot of pressing needs that we're working to address. Some of those solutions are already in the works, but we have a long way to go. Am I good? Am I good? Yeah, I think for me, we hear a lot about the addiction and the unhouseness situation. And I think for me, it's a little bit more basic for that. It's basically, for me, boils down to common courtesy and mutual respect. And I kind of look back when we're all yay tall, what our parents taught us. I know that we got people out here that are parents and raised kids and some of us maybe not, but I remember when I was a kid, what we taught your kid, basic morality, basic right from wrong. It was typically something along the lines of don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal and don't kill. And I think for those of us who live in downtown and are trying to operate establishments in that area, I think the issue for us is just the lack of basic common courtesy and respect. And it's the behavior by folks who fall into any one of those other categories. But from my perspective, it seems, I think we're all recognize that addiction is very clearly a medical issue. It needs to be treated as such, but if a person is service resistant and engaging behavior that infringes upon the rights of other people and causes them harm, which is to say they're breaking into cars or homes to steal, change or whatever to support their habit, that's criminal behavior. And people are being victimized and there seems to be a lot of focus on some of the underlying causes. And while we don't always have the ability to control the situations that we find ourselves in, we do have an ability to change how we respond to them. And while I think there's a lot to be said we've got to do as a community to get people into more permanent housing, I think we also need to recognize that there is a small element from the folks in the park that are not contributing to the community in a positive way. And I think that that is a frustration, particularly when it spills over to things like gun violence that those of us who live just mere feet from the park, we kind of, it's a little bit of a concern for us. So I guess probably a more targeted question, what's gonna be the approach to deal with the perceived lawlessness in the park and the very blatant illegal activity that's going on there that seems to be, I don't know, maybe rising to the level of willful blindness. I mean, you walk through there, you see what's going on. It's not, it doesn't take a degree in criminology to see that we've got an issue there. So I guess I'm just kind of curious, like what's the plan to deal with some of the behavioral issues that are kind of spilling over into the larger community? Sure, I'll take a, no, it's all right. You know, we're dealing with a system that was broken before the pandemic, broke worse during the pandemic and is worse now. You know, I think we had a lot of federal resources come into the state during the pandemic that helped meet some basic needs for folks. It didn't go all the way and a lot of those resources, like the emergency rental assistance are now being pulled back. So, you know, when we say, you know, changing our response to these things, I think pursuing the alternatives and committing to those and investing in them is how we change our response to this. I think the easiest thing for us to do is say, oh, we just need to bring more law enforcement into this equation and that will solve the problem. When I think that's a flawed approach, I think we've seen it be flawed for decades. And I think if we just turn to that, if we just say law enforcement is the answer to this, then we're making a serious mistake and we're not committing to those alternatives that are going to create a safer, better community for us going forward. So, you know, I understand that there's a lot of discomfort downtown right now. There's a lot, it's very challenging to be confronted with the ways that society is failing so many people. At the same time, I don't think the response to that is a larger law enforcement presence. Now, there are things that law enforcement will have to be involved in, in terms of addressing gun violence, absolutely. But, you know, I think to turn to that as the only solution, we're gonna continue to be disappointed with those results. So I think Representative Chiena wants to add something. Yeah, I would add also when Brian's done. Yeah, I actually wanted to talk about this issue tonight because Governor Scott, he released a 10 point plan to enhance law enforcement and engage in violence reduction. And I wrote something that's gonna become a front porch forum update. So you'll get more detail later about this issue because it made me think like if we're trying to address violence, what is the root of violence? And the root of violence is violence. It's pain, it's suffering, harm, injury, trauma, betrayal, abandonment, injustice, guilt, shame, disgust, hate. And Martin Luther King said the ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral but getting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence, you may murder the liar but you cannot murder the lie nor establish the truth. Through violence, you may murder the hater but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that. And for thousands of years societies have used force to get human behavior to change. But as a social worker, we think about human behavior being informed by the physical and social environment. And we have created a physical and social environment in our society where we are amplifying pain and trauma generation to generation. And the people who are struggling, if you talk to them like I have at Sears Lane as a therapist and as a representative, everyone has a trauma story and a lot of people were in DCF custody, were abandoned, were hurt by the healthcare system, were hurt by the police and have been in jail. And I think we do need to do something. At this point, we're enabling people to suffer and to spread suffering. And it's like, it's neglectful, it's inhumane but we can't just use force. And if we are gonna use the force of the state to intervene and say we're gonna arrest you, we're gonna prosecute you and we're gonna put you in jail, then we need to reform corrections. And so I'm really pushing in this year, we have a moment of opportunity here to follow four other states. Last week, California became the fourth state to pass legislation to begin exploring the Norway model. And they joined Idaho, North Dakota and Connecticut. And I would like Vermont to take it to the next level. I've learned as a legislator that the world looks at California and Vermont because California is one of the biggest economies and they're progressive leaning and Vermont does it on the rural scale. Governor Newsom is gonna probably sign that bill based on his record. We should follow up in Vermont and show people how it's done on the rural level and take it up a notch, like start experimenting with community campuses. The core of the Norway model is that we're all neighbors. It's a mindset change that's community-wide and it's not just in the facility. So the facility, people might have to be locked up at first but then they can move into these community campuses that are basically villages with a wall around it where they're offered all the normal life activities, they can get paid, get job training, education, treatment. We can provide the highest level of care for the people who need it the most when we can confine them because they have violated the law. If we do that, we can break the cycle of violence and there's more I have to say on this issue in the future but I think we cannot let it continue. We have to enforce the laws but we have to, instead of punishing people, we have to give them pathways to redemption and to healing until we do that, until we meet that pain with love, we're just gonna keep wounding generation, generation, generation. So I think what we're seeing with meth arriving in Burlington on top of the pandemic is another level of, because of what it does to people. I did some research. There's no pharmaceutical yet that can be used like methadone for methamphetamines. However, recent studies at John Hopkins and other schools show that Ebola, a plant medicine, that an analog of that can be used. So that we're on the edge of some new treatments that are ancient, that could be used to treat addiction but until they're here, we should be giving people everything that we have available and we should be giving them those cutting edge treatments as they come out. And so I have a lot of ideas. I don't wanna take up more space but I wanted to just speak to this because I came prepared for it and I am gonna be following up with some update because there's a lot more to this and I just wanna make space for others. So thanks for that. Could I add something here? And if maybe the camera can just sort of hand back to Chris who asked the question so that I can, although I'm virtual, can see the person who asked the question. There you go. You're going, there you go. Hi, Chris. So I actually wrote out a 2000 word front page forum that I think the central front page forum and the east got. I don't know if you got that, Chris. I should make sure maybe Joe can forward that but you asked the question, is there a plan and what I as a city counselor, what I think Joe would agree with is the people who are in charge of public safety, the administration is the executive branch. We're the legislative branch. And so the question, which is a great question, you are echoing a question that's been asked all over this city. And that question really needs to be asked of the mayor and the chief, what is your plan? Now, there are components of this plan that everybody has talked about, but they include also, and in my mind, and I may be different than Joe in this, I think that a smart collaboration with the state police around bar closing and University of Vermont police makes sense to me. But I also think that a more robust use of the CSL, which is the mental health worker and the CSO programs at all hours of the day, once they get ramped up is a piece of this. And what I've found in my conversations with the chief like the neighborhood level when I've been talking in support of neighbors is a resistance to use like the CSLs in a more robust way. So there is still a major job that we as policymakers on the city council and particularly the public safety committee need to engage the administration in what I think I've come to believe is an all of the above approach, right? I sat in City Hall Park a couple of Sundays ago and I just sort of watched for about an hour. And there was actually nothing wrong, but you could see the inklings of behavior that will start to tend into a selfish anti-social, anti-good neighbor type activity. You could just see that there are people that are just doing their thing and it can bubble over. Whether the assassination that happened the other night was that, I don't think so. I think there's other issues that are engaged in there. And so it's complex. And I just wanna encourage you in your role as a commissioner and as a downtown resident to be pressing the mayor and the chief to be talking about a comprehensive plan because there is not, there is, we're all in these little silos and they're the people that hold the key. So I mean, we're working on a lot of things and Joe mentioned them. Brian has mentioned other stuff, but at the heart of it, we need leadership. And I have to say, in my opinion, we are not getting that. And I would just end by saying that the question of the pods and its relationship with Church Street is really one for Brian, Pine, who, if he's gone, because he, I mean, this is his project. And I don't believe that it's a, I think it's a pretty special project. And I've supported it because it fills a niche, but it is not the solution for everybody's issues and concerns on that. And he can deal with the details on that. That's all I had to say, thanks. I know we're getting close to the end here. I don't wanna take up too much more time, but I will say that the administration will be making an announcement about the manager for the Elmwood Ave community tomorrow. And I think once that organization is in place, we're really gonna be having those community conversations about what that's gonna look like going forward. So the target date for opening that is November 1st. I think we're sticking to that. I hope we're sticking to that. And yeah, so that's all I have for that right now, but definitely more coming soon. I just wanna share something about the Pod Village, or I think that's what we're calling it, that when I was spending time at Sears Lane with people during the eviction, trying to learn, assess what people's needs are, help people access resources, and just kind of learn like people's stories and listen to them. People were living in this island with no connection to the neighbors around them. And that was one of the things that was starked. Some neighbors would come in and help. There was some interaction, but it was like people had just been abandoned and left there to just do what they want, to hurt themselves, others. And felt like one woman wrote a poem saying, we are nothing. And that's how the poem is like, we are nothing to you. You say you care, but then in the end, we're nothing. You were disposable. I have hope that we're gonna do it differently with this Pod Village. And I'm really excited because CEDO, and I don't know if Brian Pine is still here, I have a lot of gratitude for them. They've supported Isgut, Isham Street, gardening and other optimistic doings and our work to garden on our street, which has lowered crime rates even now, comparatively 30 to 60% to the surrounding streets. And the gardening and the community building has changed the physical and social environment. The city is, next week, I'm having a meeting with CEDO and a resident from Sears Lane and we're gonna begin that work at the village. And we're gonna try to like, we're gonna plan gardens and we're gonna try to reach out to the neighbors from the start. And that's my intention. And I'm doing this not as a job, not as a stay rep, I'm doing it as just a neighbor. Because what we need right now is to bring people back in as neighbors in the neighborhood. So if anyone wants to help us over the next year with the gardening, you can reach out to me because the vision is to completely garden to sort of that wiggle, to spread the gardens out from Sears Lane and I'm sorry I called it that, but like the new encampment. And link with the gardens along the wiggles on Isham street and the walkway we're creating there and we are gonna need help with that over time. But the vision really is to like use greenways to bring neighbors together to change the social environment and research shows that greenways reduce violence. And so this is a way to kind of mend the fabric of our community during a rough time and change the infrastructure to change human behavior to be pro-social. So if anyone wants to be part of that, please reach out to me and I just have a lot of gratitude to the city for like believing in it and recognizing the benefit and giving us a chance because before Sears Lane was evicted that's what people had decided to do. We were helping them garden and fix it up and it was heartbreaking for people when they finally were like people are helping us to have it taken away the way it was. So hopefully this is the beginning of a new chapter and someday we'll look back at this moment in history and say this is when we woke up and we started treating people differently. So yeah, so we're at time or past, but that's great. Thanks everyone.